Falun Dafa Las Vegas

Falun Dafa Qigong Meditation Class FREE

2010-07-31T00:37:00.000-07:00

MIND/ BODY/ SPIRIT

真 Truthfulness

善 Compassion

忍 Tolerance

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Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an advanced traditional Chinese qigong and meditation system designed to improve mind and body through slow, gentle and smooth exercises. The practice not only has far reaching effects on stress-relief and overall mental and physical health, but also ultimately has the higher goal of bringing people towards wisdom and enlightenment.

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Suitable for all ages

Free teachings, no charges

Relieves stress, creates harmony

5 sets of exercises, easy to learn

More than 100 million practitioners

Improves health, and cleanses the body

*~Falun Gong has five sets of easy-to-learn gentle movements and a meditation*~

Based on the Principals of: Truthfulness (Zhen), Compassion (Shan), Tolerance(Ren)

The workshop will be at Clark County Library (actual name of the library) located at 1401 East Flamingo Road. Las Vegas Nevada 89119 (next to the 99¢ store)

January 10, 2011, Tuesday, 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

January 24, 2011, Tuesday, 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

February 7, 2011, Tuesday, 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

February 28, 2011, Tuesday, 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Free admission and open to the public. All ages and fitness levels welcome to attend and participate.

Beginners are especially welcome!

For more information contact Jackie at (702)773-3667

Its best to call to confirm information before attending.

All activities are voluntary and FREE of charge.

No donations accepted.

PRACTICE SITES IN LAS VEGAS

2010-07-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Learning the first exercise in Vermont, USA.

You can learn the 5 exercises of Falun Dafa at any of the following practice locations. There are no prerequisites and beginners are always welcome. At each site, there will be somebody who will teach newcomers the complete set of exercises, you simply need to let them know that you would like to learn. Don't be shy, if you get there late, and they have already started, just walk up to the group and join in. For outdoor sites, it's a good idea to bring something to sit on in case the grass is wet, usually a towel or an exercise mat is OK. The fifth exercise requires sitting down for quite some time, if you have difficultly with this you may bring a chair. Most practice sites will meet all year-round, even in rain or cold weather, however, it's best to verify by calling the contact person beforehand.

DESERT BREEZE PARK Las Vegas, NV 89128

Monday through Saturday 7:55 am to 10:00 am

Sunday 8:55 am to 11:00 am

CONTACTS:

Tim: (702) 767-1852 (English 英语 Chinese 中文)

Judy: (702) 328-5566 (Chinese 中文)

Jackie:(702)773-3667 (English 英语)

Karen: (702) 732-4549 (English 英语)

Beginners are especially welcome!

Call to confirm information before attending.

All activities are voluntary and FREE of charge.

No donations accepted.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Persecution of Falun Gong in China

2010-07-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

By the Falun Dafa Information Center

(Clearwisdom.net)

It is our belief that when the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China has been fully revealed, the persecution will come to an end, since the world will simply not be able to tolerate it. That China's communist leaders have gone to such great lengths to hide and cover up their actions since 1999 indicates that they believe this, also.

To this end, the following is one in a special series of articles designed to more comprehensively expose and chronicle the persecution of Falun Gong in China in all of its many facets. We invite our readers to check back with us on a daily basis this month for more articles which document the crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese Communist Party over the past eleven years of persecuting Falun Gong.

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Why is the Chinese Communist Party persecuting Falun Gong?
The complex rationale behind the campaign can be broken into four elements: Falun Gong’s popularity, the role of Jiang Zemin, conflicting ideology, and the nature of the Chinese Communist Party’s system.

While a common misconception is that the gathering of 10,000 adherents in Beijing on April 25, 1999 is what led to the persecution of Falun Gong, oppression of the practice actually began at least three years earlier.

The more popular Falun Gong became, the more resistance it encountered. Party leaders fear any large, independent group, and Falun Gong was probably the largest. When Falun Gong books became bestsellers in 1996 they were banned; when state-run media estimated that over 70 million people practiced Falun Gong - more than the Party’s membership - media began attacking Falun Gong and state security began spying on and harassing adherents.

It was in response to these early abuses that adherents gathered in Beijing.

Fearing Falun Gong’s rapidly growing popularity was overshadowing his own legacy, then-Party leader Jiang Zemin ordered the practice “eradicated.” According to a 1999 Washington Post article, “Jiang alone decided that Falun Gong must be eliminated” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54486-1999Nov11?language=printer). Journalists and inside sources have described Jiang as “jealous” of Falun Gong and “obsessed” with eliminating the group. As China analyst Willy Lam has argued, by creating a national campaign Jiang sought to both align power to himself and eradicate a group he saw as a threat to his power.

The ideological differences between the atheist Communist Party and the spiritual Falun Gong also played a role. While religion is again becoming increasingly popular in China, and the Party does allow some religious affiliations, religious groups must submit to the state and their leaders must be Party approved. Other groups who, like Falun Gong, have chosen to preserve their belief system and refused to tender to the Party have also met persecution, including Tibetan Buddhists and house church members.

Finally, as the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (www.ninecommentaries.com) has argued, the persecution of Falun Gong is the latest in a continuum of violent campaigns that the Party uses to remind the population of its control. Mao Zedong once said that China should have a Cultural Revolution every seven or eight years. Indeed, since the 1950s not a decade has gone by without some violent state-led campaign aimed at the masses. From the suppression of “counterrevolutionaries,” the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 crackdown on the democracy movement, to Falun Gong, the Party has killed 60-80 million Chinese citizens.

The Chinese Communist Party isn’t stupid - it wouldn’t kill innocent people just like that, right?
Hitler isn’t stupid - he wouldn’t kill six million Jews just like that. Why did the Khmer Rouge kill one out of every four Cambodians? If Tibetan monks just want to piously worship and meditate, why are they still being tortured and killed in Chinese gulags? If teenage women in Darfur had done no wrong, why are they being raped? Mladic wasn’t stupid, why did he want to kill every Muslim man in Srebrenica?

It’s possible to see things from the perpetrators’ perspective somewhat and understand their economic or strategic motivation behind mass murder. But we find that at a certain point there is also evil that is sometimes very difficult to come to terms with – how could someone do such a thing to a fellow human being?

From another perspective, one of the reasons so many Chinese have either participated in the campaign or turned a blind eye to it is their visceral knowledge of the evil the Communist Party can perpetrate. After public executions, man-made starvation, cannibalism, and massacre – 60 to 80 million of their family members dead under the CCP all told - the evil perpetrated against Falun Gong has been all too familiar.

If Falun Gong is so good, why did it get banned? Why aren’t other groups being targeted like this?
First, many other groups have also been banned and are being persecuted. Christians who refuse to worship with the state-controlled church, Tibetan Buddhists, and of course democracy and other human rights activists have all been persecuted in China, in some cases for decades; other qigong groups have been banned as well and their adherents can no longer be found doing their slow-movement exercises in Chinese parks.

There is no need to compete for the title of “worst persecuted.” All these groups face egregious abuses that have brought tragedy to countless families. Moreover, these groups of innocent people face the same common aggressor.

If asked how the persecution of Falun Gong differs from what other groups face at present, the difference is as follows.

Quantitatively, Falun Gong was the largest group in society outside the Communist Party. According to the Chinese government’s own estimates, at least 70 million people practiced Falun Gong in the late 1990s, therefore the sheer number of people affected by the persecution reflects this ratio. As the U.S. State Department has noted, Falun Gong adherents have been estimated to comprise of nearly half of all Chinese detained in labor camps. Labor camp survivors have reported that over 90 percent of detainees in particular camps were the Falun Gong, and more adherents were being rushed in to newly expanded wards as late as winter 2007.

Qualitatively, Jiang Zemin and the Communist Party have launched a comprehensive campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. One common reaction from Chinese who witnessed the persecution’s early days was that it was eerily reminiscent of Maoist campaigns thought to be long-gone. In this regard, the Falun Gong resemble a group targeted during the Cultural Revolution, attacked through intense propaganda, door-to-door searches and beatings, public denunciations, and torture for which no one is being held accountable; like certain groups in the 1960s, the Falun Gong are being subject to destitution and mass banishment to remote labor camps in a systematic fashion and on a scale not seen since Mao’s death in 1976.

How did the persecution start?
The persecution was officially launched at 3pm on July 22, 1999 when China Central Television (CCTV) began its round-the-clock broadcast attacking Falun Gong and announcing the Communist Party’s new ban. Falun Gong adherents who then went to petition the government were put on buses and detained in gigantic athletic stadiums and conference halls. Quick to follow were public burnings of Falun Gong books, show trials, and rounds of arrests.

Two days prior to the broadcast launch, Falun Gong seen as key coordinators were arrested from their homes in the middle of the night throughout the country.

The previous month, on June 10, Jiang Zemin created the 6-10 Office explicitly for the purpose of destroying Falun Gong. Two months before that, dozens of adherents were arrested and beaten while picketing outside a magazine office that had slandered Falun Gong; the arrests lead to the famous gathering outside Zhongnanhai. During the preceding year, the Falun Gong began being closely monitored by secret police as they meditated in parks, and adherents were interrogated.

The very beginning of the persecution can be traced back to 1996, when the first article criticizing Falun Gong appeared in the Guangming Daily, marking the beginning of attacks on Falun Gong in state-run media.

Didn’t Falun Gong surround Zhongnanhai? Wasn’t that provoking the Chinese Government?
Over 10,000 Falun Gong adherents did peacefully gather outside the top leaders’ Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing on April 25, 1999. The gathering was legal and aimed at the State Office of Petitions next door, not the governmental compound.

Petitioning the government over abuses is a constitutionally guaranteed right in China. In fact, the previous day authorities in nearby Tianjin, where adherents had been arrested and beaten, told the Falun Gong to take their petition directly to Beijing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54486-1999Nov11?language=printer).

The gathering was in response to state persecution already taken place. Specifically it was in reaction to three years of media attacks, the arrest and beating up 45 Falun Gong adherents in Tianjin, and the banning of Falun Gong books.

The gathering was entirely peaceful. No exits or entrances were blocked and traffic was unobstructed.

In fact, it could have led to a very different, happy outcome. That day then-premier Zhu Rongji met with the Falun Gong and promised to resolve their complaints; those detained in Tianjin were released. But hours after everyone dispersed, Jiang Zemin intervened to reverse the policy. He claimed Falun Gong had laid “siege” to Zhongnanhai and that it will be an international embarrassment for the Party if it cannot defeat the Falun Gong.

It seems like Falun Gong has changed in nature, and is highly political now?
First, even as Falun Gong adherents protest, sue Chinese officials, and encourage their fellow Chinese to withdraw from the Communist Party, Falun Gong remains staunchly disinterested in gaining power. Falun Gong’s founder and the practice’s adherents in China and overseas have repeatedly made it clear that they do not wish to take over power, only to stop the persecution. As the CCP has had years to reverse its genocidal Falun Gong policy but has not done so, the only way that ending these and other atrocities seems feasible is to dissolve the Communist Party.

Second, the above activities did not exist in any form before the persecution of Falun Gong was launched. The sum of Falun Gong’s activities before state pressure was meditating or reading Falun Gong literature in groups and introducing the practice to others. If anything, one could say that the Communist Party’s labeling of Falun Gong as political and persecuting it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Party banned Falun Gong and began arresting people; when adherents protested, Jiang Zemin could say: “See, I told you they are political.”

Finally, even if Falun Gong is political, what’s wrong with that? That is certainly not grounds for persecution in any free society or else many of us would be in serious trouble. Only under authoritarian rule the Communist Party’s, a regime that tolerates no competing ideology, can being political be perceived as a crime.

What form has the persecution taken?
Inside China the Communist Party has used every method available to terrorize and pressure people to renounce their faith. Adherents are denied schooling, jobs, and custody of their children; they are publicly humiliated, raped and sexually assaulted by police. Those who disclose the abuses they experience in captivity are jailed for “leaking state secrets.” All adherents are denied legal representation, and some have received prison sentences of up to 18 years for merely their beliefs. Hundreds of thousands have reportedly been sent to labor “re-education” camps—China’s gulag system—without any legal trial. Many healthy, normal individuals have been committed to psychiatric wards where they are abused with nerve-damaging drugs. As of July 2007, 3,064 deaths have been documented, mostly from torture, of which there are over 63,000 accounts in total. The real death toll is believed to be in the tens of thousands.

How many people have been affected by this persecution?
On the eve of the persecution, the Chinese government estimated there were at least 70 million people practicing Falun Gong in the mainland. Including these family and friends, the persecution has directly affected hundreds of millions of people.

The campaign has reached, at some level or another, nearly all people in China – students have been forced to sign banners denouncing Falun Gong, employees to attend special study sessions, travelers to spit at Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi’s picture, and from 1999 to 2001 (before the persecution was forced underground) the entire country was inundated with hate-inciting anti-Falun Gong propaganda.

Specifically,

Tens of millions of people lost the right to their spiritual and health practices.
Millions of Falun Gong adherents have been illegally detained and the vast majority of them have been abused in custody by police.
Between 200,000 and 1 million people have been forced into slavery after being sent to labor camps without trials
Human rights workers have documented over 63,000 cases of torture or severe abuse.
Over 1,000 healthy individuals have been incarcerated in mental hospitals and tortured there, an act condemned by the World Psychiatric Association.
Over 500 people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years.
At least 3,074 deaths through police abuse and torture have been confirmed, though government sources and organ harvesting investigations suggest the real number is in the tens of thousands.

Why does the Chinese government say they do this to Falun Gong?
The Chinese Communist Party categorically denies that any maltreatment of the Falun Gong is taking place. It denies having tortured anyone, it denies killing anyone, it denies removing organs from adherents’ bodies, it denies spying on the Falun Gong overseas and, in the words of Vaclav Haval, “it denies denying.” As for why it has banned Falun Gong, the Party has made its position clear all along, spreading its message throughout the world and putting Falun Gong on the defensive from day one of the full persecution in July 1999. To quote directly, according to the Party, Falun Gong is “anti-society, anti-science, and anti-humanity.”

The Party, which had praised Falun Gong prior to the ban, now claims the Falun Gong is a menace to society (though it cannot explain why no other government in any of the 70 countries in which Falun Gong is practiced freely has made similar charges), it claims Falun Gong is anti-China (though the vast majority of its adherents are Chinese), and that it is a political organization (though the Falun Gong have to this day made clear they have no interest in power and the group had nothing to do with the government before it was persecuted).

I’ve seen graphic photos of alleged torture… are those real? Can you verify your claims of torture and maltreatment?

Yes. Please see evidence.

What are some of the government’s tools in suppressing Falun Gong?
The Party has used its vast security, judicial, and propaganda resources to attack Falun Gong, drawing upon over half a century of its experiences running such campaigns and upon tactics adopted by the most notorious dictatorships of the past.

To turn 1.3 billion people against Falun Gong, the Party launched a massive propaganda campaign overnight, one that inundated state-run television, newspapers, wire services, and the Internet, while censoring access to alternative perspectives.

To preclude overseas criticism, the Party spread its propaganda to a world that did not even know what Falun Gong is, while threatening foreign government officials with repercussions if they spoke out. It also dispatched a spy network to infiltrate the Falun Gong overseas.

To detain hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong adherents, the Party has tapped into and expanded its vast labor camp system, much like the Soviet gulag. It also released ordinary criminals in order to make room for the meditators in jails, while other healthy adherents have been sent to psychiatric wards.

To track down Falun Gong adherents for arrest, the Party has relied on overseas technology, such as systems that the U.S.-based CISCO sold China’s Public Security Bureau for this purpose.

To torture the jailed Falun Gong, the Party has used electric batons, forced-feeding tubes, ropes, irons, and psychotropic drugs, as well as more readily available belts, shoe soles, brushes, burning cigarettes, and of course fists, knees, and walls.

To guarantee impunity for the police, the Party has instructed all courts (whose judges are all Party members to begin with) to vigorously convict the Falun Gong, and ordered lawyers not to defend adherents without permission.

Finally, to dispose of those Falun Gong adherents who refuse to be “transformed” (i.e. brainwashed) and generate a profit, the Party, military, and hospitals have collaborated to “execute” Falun Gong adherents on the operating table; their organs are then removed for on-demand transplants.

To oversee the entire process, Jiang Zemin, who launched the campaign, created the 6-10 Office (link to 6-10 Office page).

This sounds like the Cultural Revolution, doesn't it?
Yes, that was also the reaction of many Chinese when they saw the propaganda blitz, the police everywhere, the burning books, the mass arrests, and the public show trial. The more elderly of family members who have seen their loved thrown into a labor camp and have not heard from them since are no doubt reminded of similar scenes back in the 1960s.

In its efforts to destroy the Falun Gong, the Party has drawn upon the “successful” tactics of its past campaigns, not only the Cultural Revolution but also its many communist movements of the 1950s and early 1960s.

How have the Falun Gong responded to the persecution?
The Falun Gong have responded with markedly nonviolent means, refusing to use force throughout eight years of resistance to suppression.

Inside China, adherents’ response has consisted of trying to file petitions or writing letters to China’s rulers, meditating in public parks pr Tiananmen Square, informing fellow citizens about the persecution they face and its illegality through leaflets or VCDs, hanging banners and posters in visible places, calling labor camps and prisons to speak directly with perpetrators, and publishing records of the persecution online.

Outside China, adherents have been holding continuous round-the-clock vigils for years outside Chinese embassies and consulates, parades, rallies, hunger strikes, and cross-country car tours to raise awareness of the persecution in China. Other activities have included compiling reports for United Nations special rapporteurs, holding press conferences and forums, urging leaders to speak out about the atrocities, producing printed, electronic, and broadcast media about the persecution, as well as developing advanced software to help Chinese break through China’s Internet firewall.

I have heard that the Falun Gong are suing lots of people. Why?
Yes, Falun Gong adherents and supportive international human rights lawyers have been filing lawsuits against Chinese Communist Party officials heavily associated with the campaign. Examples include former head of state Jiang Zemin who launched the persecution, Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee President Liu Qi, and China Central Television (CCTV). On the other hand, officials not directly associated with the persecution, like Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, have not been sued.

For more about the dozens of lawsuits filed, their successes, their challenges, the laws under which they were filed, and the prominent lawyers on the cases, click here.

How have most Chinese people responded to the persecution?
For the first several years after the campaign against Falun Gong was launched in 1999, most Chinese people appeared to be shocked and stayed clear of the issue. Whether because they believed in the Party’s propaganda or because they were afraid of facing persecution themselves, few other than family of the persecuted dared say a fair word about Falun Gong in public.

But Chinese people both in China and abroad are now increasingly standing up in defense of Falun Gong. Lawyers like Guo Guoting and Gao Zhisheng[u1] (http://davisiaj.com/content/view/249/1/), in particular, have for the moment lost their careers trying to defend the Falun Gong.

After initially being influenced by mainland propaganda and pressures, overseas Chinese are also gradually becoming more supportive recently, and have given Falun Gong awards recognizing its contributions to the community and to the cause of freedom in China (http://clearharmony.net/articles/200704/38940.html).

How have the U.S. and other world governments responded to the persecution?
Many governments around the world have condemned the persecution, with legislatures generally taking stronger stances than heads of state.

The U.S. government has been unequivocal in its opposition to the persecution. Former President Clinton, President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have spoken out and issued statements on the persecution of Falun Gong.

In November of 1999 the House of Representatives unanimously passed resolution 218, with the Senate concurring, condemning the persecution and calling for the immediate release of all jailed adherents. H.R. 188 was passed unanimously in July of 2002 (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=5983). In 2004, it unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Party’s attempt to extend it overseas (http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=8962). Members of Congress across the political spectrum have also spoken out about the atrocities perpetrated against Falun Gong in China at rallies, written to Communist Party leaders, supported Falun Gong lawsuits (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=7469), and worked to rescue American Falun Gong jailed in China (http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=7057).

Similar actions have been taken by legislators in Europe, Australia, and other countries. In Canada, where support has been particularly strong, a member of Parliament walked into a Chinese embassy event in the House of Commons wearing a yellow “I support Falun Gong” t-shirt (he was roughed up by embassy staff).

Outspoken support from heads of state has been limited. For instance, while throughout eight years of persecution the U.S. Department of State has highlighted the Falun Gong’s plight in its annual reports, U.S. leaders rarely directly raise the issue of Falun Gong in public meetings with Chinese officials. This in spite of letters from Congress before such meetings urging them to do so (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=5306).

There are notable exceptions. For example, the Irish prime minister and foreign minister directly approached Communist Party leaders asking for the release of Trinity College student Zhao Ming when he was jailed in China. And in Taiwan, the president and vice president have met with Falun Gong adherents and spoken out strongly in support.

How have organizations such as Amnesty International responded to the persecution?
Amnesty has repeatedly detailed various aspects of the persecution of the Falun Gong in its annual reports (for example, see its special report [links to http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engASA170112000], or its 2006 annual report [links tohttp://web.amnesty.org/report2006/chn-summary-eng]). Like most human rights organizations, Amnesty has not yet been able to independently conduct investigations about the persecution and produce its own figures. But it has regularly issued urgent actions, encouraging its wide network of members to campaign on behalf of detained Falun Gong at risk of torture (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA170492006?open&of=ENG-CHN). One such urgent action case, Mr. Liu Chengjun, was indeed tortured to death in the end (http://www.faluninfo.net/DisplayAnArticle.asp?ID=8207).

During the early stages of the persecution Human Rights Watch issued a report exposing the illegality of the campaign launched against Falun Gong (http://hrw.org/reports/2002/china/).

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has repeatedly queried the Chinese authorities and issued reports in which cases of Falun Gong torture comprise the majority of the China section (http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=8650).

Increasingly, prominent individuals – such as leading international human rights lawyers, members of the Jewish religious community, and overseas Chinese democracy advocates - have been speaking out about the killing of Falun Gong adherents for their organs (http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9492).

Didn’t several Falun Gong members set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square?
This claim has been one of the biggest propaganda successes of the CCP, and in the twenty first century overall. Falun Gong’s teachings are firmly against killing and consider suicide a sin. We believe the incident was staged. For a deeper analysis, please see (http://faluninfo.net/tiananmen/immolation.asp).

Why haven’t I read or heard more about this?
Indeed, after an initial interest in the story, Western press has been largely avoiding the issue.

The CCP has taken great pains to push the campaign underground and prevent foreign journalists from reporting on the story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1874755.stm). The Party has also succeeded in creating much negativity towards the Falun Gong from the very beginning. In 1999, China’s propaganda apparatuses spread worldwide whereas Falun Gong barely had websites, say nothing of television stations and newspapers. The group was caught on the public relations defensive and has been fighting an uphill battle to draw attention to the persecution ever since.

Some journalists working for Western media, like the BBC, have confided that the story is not being covered due to fears of losing access in Beijing. For many editors, moreover, news of large-scale human rights abuses, even mass murder, fail to fit with the stories of “China’s peaceful rise” they are currently running.

For more on why Falun Gong is not in the media as much as one might expect, click here Out of Media Spotlight

Source: http://faluninfo.net/print/217/

Bloody Harvest: Stealing Organs For Profit

2009-11-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

Bloody Harvest: Stealing Organs For Profit
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/24992/

OTTAWA—Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for their organs is a meticulous account of true events that reads like a horror story.

A portent of that horror comes early in the book: “The allegations, if true, represented a disgusting form of evil which, despite all the depravities humanity has seen, was new to this planet.”

In May 2006, coauthors David Matas and David Kilgour received a letter from the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) asking them to investigate allegations that imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners were being used to supply vital organs for the transplant tourist industry in China.

With no eyewitness testimony available and unable to enter China, the authors used independently verified sources of evidence and a deductive reasoning model to conclude that the allegations were indeed true.

The result of their investigations was a preliminary report released in July 2006. A second report, with new substantiations, was released in January 2007. Both were published on the Internet.

The newly released book is larger than the reports and contains previously unpublished materials. It is presented in two sections: the evidence that led to the authors’ conclusions, and the responses to the reports, followed by some suggestions on how to stop the practice of using living organ donors in China.

Kilgour and Matas concluded that “A set of peaceful, healthful exercises with a spiritual foundation was made illegal in 1999 by the Communist Party because of fear it might threaten the Party’s dominance, and it appears that many human beings engaged in these exercises have been in effect executed for their organs by medical practitioners.”

Matas, a human rights lawyer who received the Order of Canada for his human rights work, and Kilgour, a former crown prosecutor and former Member of Parliament, have produced a damning body of evidence that could shake the world press and various governments from their complacency regarding the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong.

CIPFG chair Clive Ansley said he’s delighted with the release of Bloody Harvest and hopes the book “sparks a lot more public debate than we’ve had up ‘til now.”

He said the mainstream press has been “inexcusably derelict” by not reporting on the illicit harvesting of Falun Gong organs in China.

“The knowledge is there, people in the media know it, but they’ve done almost nothing about publicizing it, which means that a very significant percentage of the population in North America particularly remains unaware of the fact that we’re watching another holocaust essentially.”

Starting with the knowledge that 1999—the year in which the number of organ transplants performed in China began rising dramatically—was the same year that the persecution of Falun Gong started, the authors uncovered various supporting facts that explain why the abhorrent organ harvesting started and how it is carried out. Some of the many factors described in the book include:

* No system for voluntary donation exists in China, and a societal aversion to the practice means organ donors are rare.
* Numerous testimonials of previous Falun Gong prisoners detailing how they were routinely blood tested and examined while regular criminal inmates were not.
* Testimonials of people who traveled to China to receive transplants and the impossibly short wait time for a matched organ to become available.
* Websites advertising living organ donors whose renal function is verified before the operation.
* The huge number of transplants performed annually cannot be accounted for using executed prisoners or brain-dead patients.

The involvement of military physicians and hospitals trafficking in human body parts coupled with the systematic persecution of Falun Gong adherents resulted in large numbers of organ transplants occurring without any record of the source of the donors.

“A full explanation of the source of all organ transplants would disprove the allegation,” wrote the authors.

“If the source of all organ transplants could be traced, whether to willing donors or executed prisoners, then the allegation concerning the Falun Gong would be disproved. But such tracing is impossible.”

The part played by the western world in enabling the harvesting of organs from living human beings is also discussed, including the role of economic considerations as businesses and governments try to please the communist leaders so they can maintain trade relations and make money in China.

The authors make a case for continued human rights advocacy in China and explain that although the Chinese regime can’t be forced to change its principles, it can be confronted with the facts. The facts make the regime look bad, and China fears loss of face above all else.

To learn more go to: http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ or read the book Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong Practitioners For Their Organs

Part 1: April 25th, 1999 - The Protest that Changed China

2009-11-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Ten years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside China's central leadership compound in Beijing. They had come to appeal at China's central appeals office--to appeal for practitioners who had been abused in the city of Tianjin, for their books, which had been banned, and for practitioners all over the country who were being harassed and investigated by the police.

They were met by the Chinese premier, and the arrested practitioners were released. It seemed like the appeal had been successful, But in reality, time was running out, and the brutal crackdown was getting closer and closer.

Part 2: May 13th - Soul of a Nation

2009-11-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

After ten years of often-brutal persecution by China’s Communist authorities, the Chinese spiritual practice Falun Gong remains a visible presence worldwide. It’s still practiced, although often in secret, by millions in the Mainland. What makes these people so committed to their beliefs? In “A Decade of Courage: Soul of a Nation” we look at the rapidly changing, post-Cultural Revolution China in which the practice emerged. We hear the stories of people who came to Falun Gong for various reasons, but who say their lives have been changed as a result. And, ten years after the Communist ban, on the tenth year that practitioners worldwide celebrate May 13th as “World Falun Dafa Day”, and 17 years after the practice was first spread on May 13th, 1992, we ask what this practice has meant for today’s China, and what it will mean for China’s future.

Part 3: June 10th, 1999 - China's Hidden Holocaust

2009-11-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

Thursday, June 10th, 1999. To most of us, it's like any other day. But ten years ago today, the Chinese communist regime created a Gestapo-style secret police agency, with the mission to destroy Falun Gong--by any means necessary.

With the tools of torture and the resources of the world's most populous nation, then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin thought he could crush Falun Gong in three months. But as history played out, many Falun Gong practitioners were able to not only endure the brutality of the persecution, but turn the tables on the Chinese government by exposing their persecution around the world. This is their story.

Part 4: July 20th - China's Deadly Harvest

2009-11-23T21:36:00.000-08:00

Numbers are symbols; they represent anything and everything. But they also hide what they represent, like a mask. In ten years, the names of over 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been collected; they are the names of people who have been killed through torture by Chinese authorities. But, how many more people simply disappeared after the persecution began? And what is the connection to China's booming organ transplant industry. Though the truth is still unknown, the evidence points to a disturbing conclusion about the new China, and of what the rest of the world is willing to ignore. In this original investigation, NTD attempts to discover: 'what happened to the people who disappeared?'

Falun Dafa Workshop Dates

2009-07-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

MIND/ BODY/ SPIRIT

真 Truthfulness
善 Compassion

忍 Tolerance

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Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an advanced traditional Chinese meditation system designed to improve mind and body through slow, gentle and smooth exercises. The practice not only has far reaching effects on stress-relief and overall mental and physical health, but also ultimately has the higher goal of bringing people towards wisdom and enlightenment.

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Suitable for all ages

Free teachings, no charges

Relieves stress, creates harmony

5 sets of exercises, easy to learn

More than 100 million practitioners

Improves health, and cleanses the body

*~Falun Gong has five sets of easy-to-learn gentle movements and a meditation*~

Based on the Principals of: Truthfulness (Zhen), Compassion (Shan), Tolerance(Ren)

The workshop will be at Clark County Library 1401 E. Flamingo Road 89119 in Large Conference Room near the Theater when you enter the library.

Saturday December 05, 2009 at 2:00pm to 5:00m

Tuesday December 15, 2009 at 6:00pm to 8:45pm

For more information contact Rafael at 702-463-7396

Let Freedom Ring for China

2009-07-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

Chinese Couple Finds Hope at the Liberty Bell
By Pamela Tsai
Epoch Times Staff

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/20107/

A "sensitive year" is what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has called 2009—for Chinese government officials, "sensitive" is a code word for being ready to clamp down on public dissent. This year marks 60 years since the CCP took over China and 20 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre. More importantly, it has been ten years since the Party began the persecution of Falun Gong, a peaceful practice of mind and body based on the principles of truth, compassion and forbearance.

Jason Wang, 36, a former university lecturer from Hefei, Anhui Province (approximately 250 miles from Shanghai) is one of them. Wang and his wife Tina Jia practice Falun Gong.

On the evening of July 20th, Wang and dozens of practitioners and supporters of Falun Gong stood next to the building that houses the Liberty Bell. “Standing beside the Liberty Bell, I call for an end to the persecution in China,” Wang said through a translator.

Wang recently escaped China with his wife and arrived in Philadelphia. He grew up in an educated family. His father is a lawyer, and his mother is a teacher.

In October 1999, less than three months after the CCP began its brutal campaign against Falun Gong, Wang was fired from his university job for traveling to Beijing to appeal to the central government to end the persecution.

In 2000, he was arrested in an Internet cafe. The owner reported Wang to local police when he saw that Wang was trying to view Clearwisdom.org. The website is run by overseas Falun Gong practitioners to provide information about the persecution and to share ideas.

He escaped on the way to the police station. He was arrested again 15 minutes after he called his parents to tell them where he was. His lawyer father wanted to help his son, but he was helpless.

The Chinese government prohibits lawyers from defending Falun Gong practitioners. Lawyers who represent Falun Gong practitioners have become victims of the CCP, facing imprisonment, torture, harassment, intimidation, beatings and revocation of their law licenses.

Wang endured eight months of torture at the Fei Dong Detention Center. There, in the cold of a November night, the police stripped Wang of his clothes, made him stand outside, and ordered 30 inmates to pour cold water over him.

Wang was forced to wear 33 pounds of iron shackles on his feet, day and night. His hands were often cuffed.

He was forced to work 16 hours every day. “We are the slave labor behind the cheap Chinese imports,” said Wang when he saw “Made in China.” The documentary follows Christmas tree ornaments sold in American stores. Christmas ornaments are one of the products he made in the labor camp.

About 90 percent of the Christmas tree ornaments sold in the U.S. are made in China. According to an investigation report cited by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, many Christmas tree ornaments sold at some major retailers are made in Chinese sweatshops or by slave labor.

Wang’s personal account brought renewed understanding about China to the bystanders in the audience. Danny, a Drexel law school student said “It is cruel. The persecution shouldn’t be allowed to continue.”

One Chinese woman, originally from Fujian Province, asked to be quoted anonymously for fear of being identified by CCP spies in the U.S. She said, “I couldn’t help crying. I know what he said was true. Nobody can openly talk about this in China ... only here.”

Wang said physical torture was only part of the devastation. “The killing of conscience is more deadly.”

When he was in the labor camp, he was beaten by several police. Their job was to brainwash Wang and make him denounce his belief. For many police, performance reviews, salaries, bonuses and promotions are tied to a quota of how many Falun Gong they force to give up the practice. They were given orders to do whatever it takes to get the quota met. The original orders given by the CCP to eliminate Falun Gong included “no measure is too excessive” and “if beaten to death, count it as suicide."

One day, Jason was beaten into unconsciousness. When he awoke, he found that one police officer, a young man in his early twenties was trying to loosen up the ropes tied around Wang's body. He looked at Wang’s bruised legs, faces, arms, asked “Do you hate me?”

Wang replied, “No. I know you didn’t want to.”

The young man became choked up. “It is my job, not my conscience.”

“It is a tragedy not only for the ones being persecuted, but also those who are made to commit the crimes against humanity, against their own conscience,” said Wang.

Wang asks the international community to help restore the conscience in China. “ Without conscience, there is no hope, no future ... the persecution of Falun Gong is a test of the basic humanity in us all. The persecution has to be stopped.”

Wang’s voice was echoed by his wife Tina, who is seeking help to rescue her mother, jailed in a Chinese labor camp for practicing Falun Gong.

To Conscience

2009-07-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

If right and wrong can be compromised, why have right and wrong? If good can cave in to evil, what will values and principles be based on?

Conscience, the innate knowing of goodness, is the very essence of humanity. Everything else, even our "inalienable rights" can be forcibly taken away. The alteration of our conscience, no matter how small, must be compensated to from within. Conscience, thus, defines human nature, and the right to conscience is a human beings most fundamental right.

No crime, therefore, is worse than the crime against conscience.

By Shizhong Chen
The Conscience Foundation
The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group

IN MEMORY OF THE 3,283 DEATHS OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA WHO DIDN'T LOSE THEIR CONSCIENCE EVEN IN THE FACE OF LOSING EVERYTHING ELSE.
JULY 20, 2009 WILL MARK THE 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONG IN CHINA BY THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY.

Million Minutes of Meditation

2009-07-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Bring Peace to China by Finding in yourself.

Your meditation can help stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

This July marks exactly 10 years since the Chinese Communist Party began a campaign of imprisonment, propaganda, torture, and murder to eradicate Falun Gong, a practice of meditation and spiritual cultivation based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Falun Gong was once celebrated by the Chinese government for its health benefits and moral teachings, but as the practice grew in popularity throughout the 1990's, the Communist Party began to see it as an ideological threat, eventually banning it outright. Practitioners of Falun Gong have maintained their peaceful beliefs in the face of this oppression, and their efforts to regain their freedom have always been non-violent and in line with the tenets of their faith. Hundreds of thousands have been imprisoned without trial. Millions have lost jobs, homes, and loved ones. Over 3,200 have been tortured to death for their beliefs.

So here's what you can do to help:

Take a minute or two—or more—and just sit, meditate, or pray in your way. Think about the principles that guide your life or what freedom of belief means to you, and then simply donate those minutes of meditation to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong by filling in the form on the left. If you find the experience rewarding, do it again another day, and ask a few friends to do the same.

To donate your meditation or prayer please go to http://millionminutesofmeditation.org/

Testimonials: Olympian Jan Becker on Falun Gong

2009-07-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Olympian Jan Becker on Falun Gong
Epoch Times International Newspaper
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/19343/

By Jan Becker

I have been practicing Falun Dafa for over 10 years. I was drawn to the practice initially by the exercises, which are very gentle, but have amazing energy.

I didn’t start reading Zhuan Falun, written by Mr. Li Hongzhi, until three months later. The teachings have answered many of the questions I had on life and the universe. Now, over the years, I have been amazed at the changes in myself both physically and mentally.

Doing the meditation and exercises, and following the three principles of Falun Dafa, which are Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, has given me the opportunity for personal improvement and I have been able to apply them to both my everyday life and my work as a human resources manager.

Prior to commencing the practice, I was under the care of a major Melbourne hospital for a serious respiratory condition, which was in the TB/leprosy family. The disease was not contagious, but was considered fatal, and I could feel myself fading away. After six months of practicing Falun Dafa, I decided to put all my faith in my practice and I have not been to a doctor since—for anything!

My boss, who I have worked with for 17 years, has been extremely supportive. He told me that even though he has trained in the physical sciences, he can see that, through the metaphysical, clearly something very positive has happened to me.

No one, including my family and friends, expected me to be here today and personally, I feel 10 years younger than when I commenced Falun Dafa. My energy levels and my enthusiasm for life have completely changed.

People around me are very supportive of Dafa because they can see that I am a healthier and more caring person.
Tiananmen Square

Six months after I began practicing Falun Dafa, China banned the practice and the terrible persecution of practitioners in China began. To show my support, especially as a Westerner, I decided, along with eight other Australians, to go to China in 2002 to show our support for the Chinese practitioners and what was happening to them.

I felt that as an Olympian, I could maybe have some impact through the media, informing the rest of the world what was really being hidden from them. In Tiananmen Square, to be able to repeatedly shout from my heart that Falun Dafa is good was an honor. I knew this was part of my journey and I wasn’t in the least bit scared.
Beijing Olympics

China promised to change if they got the Olympics in 2008 and I saw a great opportunity for the International Olympic Committee to make that happen. Instead, they went against the principles of the Olympic Charter and the code of ethics. In my eyes, and I am sure many others also feel as I do, the Olympics have been diminished and I am ashamed at numerous things that occurred.

I could go into so many issues of cruelty and upheaval that occurred to the Chinese people because of the Olympics. Even today, there are still practitioners and other people trying to assist with people’s rights in China who remain imprisoned because of the Olympics. The international media did little about it too.

We, as human beings, need to consider what the important things in life are. To me, the sanctity of life and respect for human dignity override all other aspects, including trade, profit and sport, even at the Olympic level.

I personally feel it is disgusting what is going on and I sincerely hope that the world can stand as one to end the persecution of this beautiful and beneficial practice.

Olympian Jan Becker

Jan Becker competed for Australia in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as part of the silver medal winning freestyle relay team. She is a mother of three, grandmother of six and works for a large engineering company in Melbourne. She has been practicing Falun Gong since 1998 and was briefly arrested in China in 2002 when she went to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to demonstrate against the persecution. Ms Becker was Australia’s ambassador at the launch of the Human Rights Torch in Athens in 2008 and remains committed to ending human rights abuses in China.